The present invention relates generally to self-adjusting padding that fits within a helmet and conforms to the head of a wearer of the helmet.
Protective padded wear has many uses and is present in various industries. The protective head wear is generally described as a helmet and is used to protect the head of the wearer of the helmet from injury. The helmets are used in numerous areas including construction, military, and sports. The sizes of the protective helmets used must vary according to the variance in size of the human head. This creates a greater expense for organizations that have numerous persons requiring the protective helmet.
Others have attempted to provide different forms of adjustable helmets. For example, Broersma U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,357 uses both suspension and retention straps to provide adjustment for the head gear fitting and accessory system disclosed in the patent. The suspension and retention straps are designed to adjust the helmet in a vertical direction to allow for a variance in head size when that variance is measured from the crown of the head to the chin. However, the straps in the Broersma patent fail to adjust to a variance in the circumference of head sizes of wearers of the Broersma helmet. The Broersma patent also uses stays located within the head gear system to allow movement of the padding within the head gear. However, the use of these stays to alter the position of the padding within the head gear can cause misplacement of the padding within the head gear and reduce the effectiveness of the head gear.
Other attempts have been made to create adjustable protective head gear. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,420 issued to Haysom et al discloses a protective helmet with a removable band. The band is placed around the head and then a helmet is placed on top of the head around the band. The fact that the protective helmet is not a single assembly results in misplacement of the individual sections of Haysom et al. head gear as well as increasing the cost of the head gear.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,847 issued to Holden Jr., discloses a baseball batters helmet that provides adjustable padding within the helmet. The padding requires manual adjusting straps in order to conform the padding to the different head sizes of various users of the Holden Jr. helmet. Also, the protective shell in the Holder Jr. helmet has openings where the straps must extend through the protective shell to the external portion of the helmet. This weakens the structural integrity of the Holden Jr. helmet and requires manual manipulation in order to adjust the helmet to different head sizes.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,571B1 issued to Infusino discloses a protective helmet with an adjustable helmet liner. The Infusino device has an expandable band mechanically fixed to the shell of a helmet, an adjustable helmet liner mechanically fixed to the expandable band and absorption padding attached to the helmet liner. The Infusion patent fails to adequately disclose an adjustable helmet due to the mechanical attachment of the expandable band to the helmet shell. This mechanical attachment restricts the band from properly adjusting to the head of wearer of the Infusino helmet thereby lessening the adjustable characteristic of the Infusino helmet.
Due to the lack of adequate adjustable helmets used for cranial protection, there is a need in the art for a helmet with a self-adjusting interior padding.
The present invention provides a helmet with self-adjusting padding designed to adjust to various head sizes of individual wearers of the helmet. The protective helmet comprises a helmet shell having a interior surface, a first helmet pad, a second helmet pad, and at least one expandable band. Each of the first and second helmet pads comprise a first pad section attached to the interior surface of the helmet and a second pad section spaced away from the interior surface of the helmet. At least one expandable band is attached to each of the second pad sections.
The protective helmet also comprises a pad gap separating the first and second helmet pads. The expandable band extends across the pad gap and allows adjustment of the band and of the first and second helmet pads in order to conform to the head of a user of the protective helmet. The band and the helmet pads are spaced away from the interior surface of the helmet shell in order to allow the band and the helmet pads to move toward the helmet interior surface once a user of the protective helmet has inserted his or her head into the protective helmet.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide adjustable padding for a helmet.
Another object of the present invention is to provide self-adjusting padding for a helmet.
Still yet another object of the present invention is provide a helmet containing self-adjusting padding that conforms to the head of a wearer of the helmet.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a helmet with self-adjusting padding that provides a location for pony-tail styled hair to extend out of the helmet.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide an adjustable helmet without weakening the structural integrity of the helmet.